Skip to main content

Roman Science Operations Center Newsletter

View All Roman News
October 2025

About This Article

The latest news from the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope Science Operations Center (SOC) at STScI 

The thermal vacuum testing of the combined spacecraft, telescope, and instruments completed successfully on October 14 at the Goddard Space Flight Center. The Science Operations Center at STScI used the resulting data to test the cloud-based data processing system from end-to-end for the first time and is working on finalizing the data pipeline and the infrastructure to archive the data. The Cycle 1 Call for Proposals is expected in November 2025, with a deadline in March 2026; however due to the U.S. federal government shutdown these dates may change. The Roman Project Office is now aiming for a late September 2026 launch date.  As the Call for Proposals, launch, and beginning of operations approach, the Science Operations Center and the Science Support Center at IPAC will be offering a series of webinars to introduce Roman users to tools developed to help scientists analyze data and plan observations. 

simulated observation from NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope with an overlay of its Wide Field Instrument’s field of view.
This image shows a simulated observation from NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope with an overlay of its Wide Field Instrument’s field of view. Each Roman observation will contain more than 20 gravitational lenses, such as those shown on the two sides of the image. According to Bryce Wedig et al. (2025), the High-Latitude Wide-Area Survey will detect more than 500 gravitational lenses suitable for dark matter studies. Such a large population of gravitational lenses will shed new light on the mysterious nature of dark matter. Image credits: Joseph DePasquale (STScI) 

Roman at Conferences

Coming Up

  • AAS meeting 247, Phoenix, AZ, January 4-8, 2026.  Sign up to attend one the following workshops when registering:
    • Preparing for the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope: Working in the Roman Research Nexus, January 4, 2026, 9AM
    • Roman Galactic Bulge Time Domain Survey Data Challenge, January 4, 2026, 9AM
    • Hands-on Science with OpenUniverse2024 Roman and Rubin simulations, January 4, 2026, 10AM
  • Arizona Winter School, "Multi-Probe Cosmology in the Roman Era," Tucson, AZ, January 12-15, 2026. Registration is open and free, but space is limited to 80-100 participants.
  • RAPID Response, "Hot-wiring the Next Generation of Time-Domain Science," Caltech, Pasadena, CA, March 23-27, 2026.
  • Roman Science Symposium, IPAC/Caltech, Pasadena, CA, July 13-17, 2026.

Recently Held

Roman Webinars

Ready, Set, Roman! Training Series: The Science Operations and Support Centers are starting a series of webinars to introduce Roman users to the many tools available to prepare for and analyze Roman data and plan observations. The current schedule of upcoming Roman webinars is:

  • Tools for Exploring Roman’s Core Community Surveys, November 4, 2025
  • Simulations, November 18, 2025
  • APT Overview, December 2, 2025
  • Roman Telescope Proposal System and Proposal Process, December 9, 2025
  • ETC Overview & Walkthrough, December 16, 2025
  • Data Analysis, January 13, 2026

See the Training Series webpage for updates to the schedule and instructions on joining, or sign up for the listserve to have notifications delivered to your inbox.

Roman Tools

Roman WFI Exposure Time Calculator version R2025.9 was released on September 15th, 2025.  This release adds five sample workbooks, including demo programs for the Core Community and Galactic Plane Surveys, to help users assess Roman’s community-defined survey data quality for their target sources (login into the ETC web app to see them). This version also includes the most recent MA tables (revision G), as well as updated background models, Point Spread Functions from STPSF, and detector parameters from the TVAC campaign. For more information, please check out the Release Notes and Known Issues.

The Astronomer's Proposal Tool (APT) version 2025.6.1 is available for designing General Astrophysics Surveys (GAS) with Roman's Wide Field Instrument. Several demonstration programs are available in the APT File menu to help proposers get started. These include scaled-down versions of the four community-defined surveys, letting users explore the underlying observing strategies without the complexity of the full programs. The set also includes a spectroscopic observation, galaxy observations, and a multi-epoch observation of M33. Note that Roman observing proposals will be submitted through the Roman Telescope Proposal System and proposers will append their APT files to the web-based submission form. For more information on using APT for Roman, see the User Guide in RDox.

Roman Surveys

The Galactic Plane Survey definition committee submitted a report detailing their recommended survey implementation to the Roman Observations Time Allocation Committee (ROTAC) on August 18, 2025. The final version of the report, including revisions in response to the ROTAC's review, was published on October 1, 2025. The definition committee presented the recommended survey implementation in the Roman Community Forum on October 1, 2025.

First Look Observations: To help debut Roman to the world, the Project Science Office invited the community to submit suggestions by August 11 for high-impact WFI outreach images to be executed at the conclusion of Commissioning. These will be similar to HST’s and JWST’s Early Release Observations. The Science Operations Center is supporting the Project Science Office in identifying and prioritizing a set of targets for Roman's First Look Observations.  

Roman Graphic Library: Infographics about the three core community surveys as well as graphic identifiers for all the community-defined surveys are available in the Science section of the library.

Roman Documentation

The Roman User Documentation System (RDox) website currently features the Roman Data Handbook and user-centered documentation for Simulation Tools, the Wide Field Instrument (WFI) Imaging Mode, and the Astronomers Proposal Tool (APT) User Guide. RDox is being developed incrementally by the SOC and Science Support Center as the mission progresses towards launch. 

New Technical Publications

  • D. Fadda et al., The Roman Tessellation of the Celestial Sphere, Roman-STScI-000708
  • T. Brandt, Quantifying the Science Performance of Multi-Accumulation Tables, Roman-STScI-000742
  • S. Betti et al., The Statistical Properties of Dark Ramps for the Roman-WFI Detectors, Roman-STScI-000814
  • R. Benjamin et al., Roman Galactic Plane Survey Definition Committee Report, (NASA page with link to the report)
  • G. Zasowski et al., Roman Observations Time Allocation Committee: Final Report and Recommendations (including the individual reports from Definition Committees), arXiv:2505.10574 [astro-ph.IM]

STScI Newsletter Articles

Roman Resources

There are many ways to get involved in the Roman Mission:

  • Roman Help Desk: Ask questions about Roman instruments, simulation tools, proposal process, observation preparation, grants, data archive and analysis.
  • Roman Science Forum: Join to stay actively engaged and up to date about technical and mission level updates.
  • Roman Science Collaboration: Start new science collaborations and draw on the expertise of researchers with complementary interests.
  • Roman Working Groups: Sign up to discuss and advise the Roman Project and its partners on WFI data and operations.
  • Roman News at STScI: Access previous Science Operations Center newsletters.
  • Roman Blog: Read weekly science announcements about Roman. 
  • Roman Social Media: Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky, and X/Twitter for the most up-to-date information related to doing science with Roman.

The NASA Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is managed by NASA/GSFC with participation of STScI, Caltech/IPAC, and NASA/JPL.

Contact the Roman Team

Roman-insignia-white.png